Fujitsu Is ‘Shaping Tomorrow’ With ServiceNow

There’s always an air of electricity in the room when a really enthusiastic, committed and forward-thinking group of technology practitioners comes together. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident this year than at the Fujitsu ServiceNow ‘boot camp’ held in Madrid this August 2018.

More than 160 Fujitsu ServiceNow practice leads gathered from across EMEA in the Spanish capital to work towards ServiceNow certification. This was the third annual practical skills and training event ServiceNow has staged in Spain, and this two-day event is delivered with a dedicated focus to ensure that all Fujitsu employees are able to provide the best possible support for their customers.

Mavericks & gurus 

Day one kicked off with separate tracks for pre-sales specialists, sales mavericks and solution consulting gurus. ServiceNow runs these interactive sessions to provide and share the most up-to-date information on products, use case demonstrations, roadmaps and the application of best practices.

Event sponsor and ServiceNow partner NextThink also played a key role at the Madrid boot camp gathering. As an expert solutions provider in end-user digital experience management solutions, NextThink was able to showcase its product updates and explain how its work with existing customers is shaping its own vision for the future of connected business.

Analyst factoid-retentive 

Market analysis research from both Forrester and Gartner were also discussed. These findings and insights helped participants understand the impact of cloud services on the next-generation of business systems being engineered today. There was even a mini quiz to ensure the info stuck!

Part of the presentations in Madrid also covered the forthcoming ServiceNow London release, which is scheduled for September 5th 2018. (Check here for lots of details on London after Sept 5th)

Tapas time

As is customary (and only right and proper), this boot camp event’s evening entertainment featured a dinner that showcased all that is best about the cuisine of Comunidad de Madrid.

Decamping to a traditional Spanish restaurant in the heart of Madrid’s city centre area, our evening was hosted by Bjørn Jarl, Head of Fujitsu’s ServiceNow Practice in EMEA, and Paul Luckett, Head of Enterprise Applications EMEIA at Fujitsu.

Day two followed on with more training and enablement content from the team at ServiceNow, including discussions dedicated to examining how the Fujitsu app on the ServiceNow store could be extended and built upon to provide customers with real value.

Accreditation situation 

After the day two opening sessions, it was accreditation time!

Fujitsu believes that accreditation is an imperative factor in differencing its ability to provide excellence. The company insists that its sales, pre-sales and consultants work diligently to remain constantly up-to-date with both qualifications and hands-on experience.

At lunch, the first results started to come in.

At first, the numbers appeared encouraging… 20 passes, 35 passes, 55 passes… and then it just kept coming… 80 passes, until finally we saw 97 passes in one sitting. I’m not sure if this is a record for ServiceNow partner accreditations, but either way, it shows tremendous dedication and commitment.

Due to event time restraints (and the fact that some employees were taking three accreditations), the final number of accreditations took slightly longer to come forward. The final figure now records over 120 attendees having passed.

This work not only shows the commitment that Fujitsu has to ServiceNow in EMEA, it also helps explain why the company is on the road to an anticipated US$4 billion growth globally.

This was a truly well-organised event and it concluded with some fun. We all joined in an “amazing adventure race” around Madrid in 40 degrees heat, hunting for clues, taking photos and answering questions. A total of 14 teams of 12 went head-to-head to see which team could not only answer all the questions but be the most creative.

Time to celebrate 

The closing party again hosted by Bjørn Jarl and his leadership team, who presented top performers with some well-deserved prizes and recognition for outstanding customer engagement. Dinner was followed up by ServiceNow Outstanding Effort Award, which I had the pleasure of presenting to the Fujitsu employee who made the greatest effort during the accreditations. 

Surprisingly Eros Kilinc, Senior Solution Architect ServiceNow at Fujitsu, that was selected by the leadership team was due to start work the day after the event finished, now that shows a new level of commitment!

All in all, this was a fantastic event and I want to give special thanks to David D’Agostino from NextThink and to the ServiceNow team including James Walters and Umar Mirza from the Partner and Alliances practice – and also to Jess David from the ISV team.

Calling all partners 

This event proved to be a huge success and should be seriously considered by partners wishing to raise their game and become an extension to the ServiceNow family.

Thanks everyone, Gracias y Salud!